When Earth Recedes and Heaven Opens

 When Earth Recedes and Heaven Opens

                                                                                  D.L. Moody

In another blog of mine, called The Four Tallest Homes in Heaven (see here), I told of a conservative Presbyterian Pastor from Korea, named Yong Park, who was taken to Heaven and Hell when he died tragically in 1987. He was shown why some saints are richly rewarded in Heaven.  These included those saints with the four tallest homes in heaven, two of whom are John Wesley and D.L. Moody.  Both of these men labored tirelessly for the Lord in preaching the gospel to their generations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries respectively.

As I mentioned in my blog called The Lord's Day (see here), about keeping Sundays holy, both John Wesley and D.L. Moody believed and taught that we should keep the Sabbath, according to the fourth commandment.  You can read Wesley's position on the Sabbath (see here), as well as Moody's (see his view on the Fourth Commandment here). And they both believed that the Christian Sabbath is on Sundays, not Saturdays (see my blog about that here), which was their constant practice.

Today I would like to share an excerpt from a book, called The Shorter Life of D.L. Moody, regarding his deathbed experience. It was glorious!

"When D. L. Moody, the American evangelist, was dying, his son was at his bedside and heard him say in slow and measured words, 'Earth recedes: heaven opens before me.' His son’s impulse was to arouse him from what he thought was a dream. 'No, this is no dream, Will,' he said. 'It is beautiful!…If this is death, it is sweet!…God is calling me and I must go.'

"Later he exclaimed, 'This is my triumph; this is my coronation day! I have been looking forward to it for years.' Then his face lit up, and he said joyfully, 'Dwight! Irene! I see the children’s faces!' referring to his two grandchildren, whom God had taken home within the past year. Again he said later, 'This is my coronation day! It’s glorious!'"

There is much more to his testimony that's worth reading, and it's all posted a on the Consumed in Christ website (see here).  I encourage you to read the whole testimony!

I also highly recommend another web page called Death Bed experiences (see here). It is an excellent article posted on Bible Guidance.

One other article, called Stories of Faith (see here), has fifty stories of God’s people down the ages, "who have faced death with an unshakeable faith and a triumphant spirit." There are thousands of such stories down through history, but these are worth telling for posterity to hear.

Today there is so much fascination with NDE's (Near Death Experiences) and OBE's (Out of Body Experiences).  I think that any research on these topics should include these sites I've just mentioned that contain stories of famous people who died.  There is a stark contrast between the horrible and terrifying death of the wicked, and the sweet and peaceful death of the righteous. This is because the righteous know Jesus Christ as their Savior and are ready for the end of their earthly life.  They have made peace with God and received the gift of eternal life through their faith in Christ.  My friend, please make very sure you are ready, because we all have an appointment we will definitely not miss, which is our appointed day to die, and we have no idea when that will be.

You can also find my complete collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Photo credit: D.L. Moody photo from Sermon Index.